1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a method and means of sealing door edges and more specifically relates to a method and means of sealing the edges of wooden doors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Absorption of moisture by unfinished edges of exterior doors, particularly through the bottom edge, causes many problems such as excess expansion, warpage, stile-rail separation and delamination.
In an effort to cope with the problem, the National Woodwork Manufacturers Association and the Fir and Hemlock Door Association require in their standard door guarantee that doors should be delivered to a job site only after the plaster or the cement is dry and if the doors are to be stored at the job site for more than a week, than at least the top and bottom edges of the doors must be sealed with a resin or pigmented base sealer.
Further, such guarantee requires that immediately after fitting, beveling, and cutting for closers and before hanging, ". . . the entire door, including the top and bottom edges, must receive two coats of paint, varnish, or equal sealer to prevent undue absorption of moisture." The guarantee further requires that adequate drying time must be allowed between coats.
Current construction practices make difficult full compliance with the guarantee requirements particularly as concerns the bottom edge of the door. After a door is hung, it must be taken down to seal the bottom edge and the two-coat procedure with intervening drying times is regularly by-passed by most builders.
Even when correctly applied, the application of a liquid coating such as paint or a sealer or a liquid resin is inadequate to cope with the problem because the joints at the sticking between the stiles and the rails expand and form leakage joints along which moisture passes and enters the interior portions of the door.